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Mabel lifted her brows and shut her mouth. She could do nothing but stare at this man that had been much like a brother to her for the last two decades, and Pippa, too, for the duration of her life. He rocked back on his heels and released Pippa, who stood and screwed her eyes, tilting her head to the side.
“But why are you so dark?” she asked innocently.
“It’s from the sun, Pip. I’ve spent quite a bit of time on a boat, you see, and that dratted sun got the best of me.”
“If you’re Charles, then you have to prove it. When did Mabel break her leg?” Pippa asked, crossing her arms over her chest. Mabel flinched, but Charles didn’t look her way.
He smiled at Pip and answered, “A few years back from falling through the loft in that wretched barn she and her friends insist on meeting in.”
“It is you!” Pippa squealed and jumped back into his arms, causing Charles to fall back and laugh as he squeezed Pippa to his chest.
“I thought you were in Italy,” Mabel said, rising to her feet and ignoring the pulsing in her calf, a result from the sprint. She had broken her leg three and a half years earlier from falling through a rotten plank and onto the ground fifteen feet below. She’d been told that she was lucky and could have broken her neck, or worse. She wondered what there was to be lucky about when she had gained an unseemly, albeit slight, limp and had lost the ability to ever dance with grace and finesse again.
“I was in Italy. I decided to come home.” Charles grinned at Mabel, and she smiled back, confused at the easy manner and radiance that exuded from this once reserved man. Apparently, Europe had been good for him. Perhaps he had been able to move on and forget the childhood infatuation that had trampled his spirit and broken his heart not once, but three times, as Amelia had married and remarried twice more without ever giving Charles a chance. It always secretly bothered Mabel, though she would be loath to say so to one of her dearest friends—particularly when that woman had been forced to bury three husbands.
“Well, I am glad you did.” Mabel grinned. “Gram missed you,” she said with a saucy smirk.
“How very fortunate for me,” he said drolly before setting Pippa down and lifting his arms to Mabel.
She stepped into his familiar embrace and reveled in the strong arms that came around her, in their familiarity and warmth. She tilted her head back and smiled. “How long are you home?”
His grin was contagious, and she felt her soul lighten. “As long as I’m wanted, of course.”
“Yes!” Pippa shouted, jumping up and down. “Now you can make that abominable Jacob leave me alone once and for all!”
Charles stepped back and lifted a brow at Pippa. “Jacob Tucker giving you trouble again?”
Pippa nodded in her adorably exasperated way.
“And since when,” Charles continued, folding his arms over his chest and cocking a hip, “has Pippa Jane needed help from anyone to keep that bully in line?”
Pippa stood up a little taller, her chin poking dangerously high into the air as she huffed. “Never. I can handle that rat.”
“Names,” Mabel reminded gently.
“Fine!” Pippa yelled at her sister before turning back to Charles. “I can handle that bully.”
“Very good. Now shall I give you a ride back to the house in my fancy carriage, or would you like to walk?”
“Oh! A ride, definitely a ride!” Pippa said as she jumped up and down. “Can I sit up by the driver?” Her wide-eyed plea looked as though it dissolved Charles into a puddle instantly.
“Of course.”
“Yippee!” Pippa ran toward the carriage, and Mabel watched her go.
“That was close,” Mabel said quietly.
“I know,” Charles agreed, standing beside his cousin and watching Pippa run along carefree. “I saw her fall back when the carriage swung to the side. I didn’t even know what was happening when I heard the scream. That was you, wasn’t it?” He turned toward her.
“Yes.”
He shook his head, releasing a breath through his teeth. “Have you heard from your father?”
“My father?” Mabel stilled. Her father was aboard a ship somewhere in the East Indies. “We aren’t due a letter quite yet.”
“I think you will see him yourself before any missive reaches your door,” Charles said softly, his words lifting on the wind and soothing her battered heart.
“What do you mean?”
